After high-intensity Christmas engineering, London Bridge station opens

9 January 2018

Our team at London Bridge station has started the year with a celebration of the opening of the station following an intensive period of work over the Christmas break. While most of us were enjoying time off with our friends and families, many colleagues at London Bridge station were working hard to get the station fully open ready for commuters’ return to work on Tuesday 2 January. All fifteen platforms are easily accessible to wheelchair users for the first time in the station’s history, and the station’s operations are returning to a full service, as the opening of newly rebuilt platforms 1-3 allow Cannon Street services to stop at London Bridge for the first time since 2016.

“The success of the whole London Bridge team is a really positive start to 2018”, James Elford, project director, said. “Our programme management and engineering services are improving lives for visitors and Londoners alike. We got straight to work planning the Christmas blockade after the last high-intensity blockade programme over the August bank holiday week, and it’s a credit to everyone at London Bridge how we’ve opened such a great new station to the public while keeping each other safe and healthy.”

The importance of the Christmas deadlines meant that the programme leaders and managers had no choice but to use Christmas Day to complete the work. “Being away from your family on Christmas Day is never easy, so everyone in the team took time out to enjoy a hot Christmas lunch paid for by the project’s management. This is a special Christmas for all of us as it’s the last we will spend together as a team, with only a few months of the programme left to go.”

The London Bridge station team and local community will celebrate the station’s opening in a May 2018 ceremony. “The opening of our landmark station is a shining example of the investment we are making in the railway”, Mark Carne, chief executive of Network Rail, said. “I would like to thank passengers for their patience while we transformed London Bridge into the modern transport hub it is today, with more trains to more destinations, connecting north-south London and beyond.”